Some Small Sewn Things

My daughter was the main beneficiary of my weekend crafting, but it's hard to get her to stay still. So I only have a few cockeyed photos.

She picks out her own outfits. We don't quibble about matching.

First, I made her a pair of pants using some dinosaur fabric she picked out in the bargain loft at Lorraine Fabric, a huuuuuge fabric store not quite an hour's drive north from here. They don't appear to have a website; this doesn't surprise me. I don't know how long it's been there, but I can remember going there with my mom when I was a kid--mostly because I remember the sassafras tree in the parking lot near the river bank. (The store is in an old mill building. Old mill buildings are near rivers.) Anyway, everything in the bargain loft is $1.99/yard, so the girl and I went wild and bought two yards of this dinosaur fabric. She'll be getting a skirt out of it too, when it gets to be warmer.

So, pants. Her last pair of pants seemed too small (although she still wears them). In that post I wrote that I probably should have just used a toddler jammie pants pattern, so that's what I used this time. They're too baggy in the crotch, partly because the girl likes to wear her pants low in front, under her belly button (never right around her waist). I guess what I should have done is cut the front of the pants lower, and possibly used a smaller waist size but the same length. I say I guess, because pattern drafting is a bit baffling to me and is definitely something I'd like to learn more about. Even the boughten patterns seem to need adjusting, but I'm not always sure how to go about it. Knitting I can adjust--it's just math. But I have problems looking at flat sewing patterns and visualizing the finished product well enough to adjust.

Anyway. She likes the pants. I tried to get a closer-up shot of the dinosaur pattern, but on the moving girl, which didn't work so well!

It's colorful, isn't it?!

I also whipped out her requested headband.

These are so much fun. And it's useful, too, since her hair is still fine enough that it doesn't stay in barrettes or hair elastics for long. This actually keeps her hair off her face, and it's comfortable enough (just fabric and some woven elastic) that she'll keep it in for quite a while. She picked out the fat quarter, and she is pleased by her head band.

Totally not related to anything else in this post, I signed up for ihanna's handmade postcard swap. This week's "assignment" in the Creative Courage e-course was to make some postcards and send them out, and then I saw the announcement of this swap float through my twitter feed. I decided that was some sort of serendipity at work and signed up. Want to join me?